Antares
Introduction The Antares is a tier 2 heavy support vehicle fielded by General Ironside. It's a mobile energy shield generator that can create a force field sturdy enough to block all projectiles from penetrating it. Overview Despite having proved itself to be a formidable weapon, the Elbrus Storm shares a weakness with all superweapons in that it cannot move. Thus all it takes is a few spy satellite scans for the United States and China to pinpoint their location and obliterate the launch sites before they have a chance to launch. Since then, the GLA has adapted tactics to make their long ranged tactical weapons as mobile as possible and hide those that cannot be moved. Prince Kassad, an expert in the field of stealth and deception, utilized GPS jamming and camouflaging to hide his launch sites from sight. And intel indicates that he may have acquired MAZ-543P Tactical Erector Launchers for his Elbrus missiles, these mobile launching vehicles will be easier to hide and harder to trace and pinpoint. General al Huchum also began to hide his launching facilities under unsuspecting civilian structures such as temples. He has also captured several long range howitzers from the Chinese military which he used to launch artillery strikes at enemy bases. In order to counter this new and unpredictable threat, the United States Army has ordered the development of new platforms that can act as mobile substitutes for General Alexander's powerful but expensive and not always readily available SDI Cannons. General Townes utilized his laser technology to produce the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser, a powerful point defence weapon built on a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT). General Alexander on the other hand, came up with something similar but different, she also used the HEMTT as the chassis of her project, but instead of a laser or a particle beam cannon, she outfitted it with her new brainchild: the shield generator. Both units are currently undergoing field tests and evaluation under General Ironside. The Antares is designed to play a purely defensive role, it's objective is to project United States military assets from weapon strikes. When an enemy strike is detected inbound, the Antares will activate its shield module, generating a nigh-impenetrable energy barrier around itself. The shield it generates has a wide radius and is large enough cover important structures such as Strategy Centers, War Factories and superweapons. While the Antares is a highly useful unit against the occasional artillery barrages, it still has its limitations. Firstly, the Antares' shield module is quite power hungry and cannot maintain the shield for too long, and will power down 15 seconds after activation, and will take 2 minutes to recharge in order to be deployed again. And against weapons that deals heavily splash damage, the Antares' shield may not activate quickly enough, causing the splash damage to destroy the unit. Also, due to the complex nature of the Antares and limited availability for its parts, only 5 Antares units can be fielded at a time. Assessment Pros: * Shield activates automatically upon detecting a threat. * Effective against offensive generals powers such as artillery barrages. * Shield has a wide radius and can cover most buildings. * Can move when shield's active. Cons: * Expensive ($3,000). * Completely lacking in offensive capabilities, cannot even equip drones to defend itself. * Only 5 can exist at a time. Trivia * Antares, also known as Alpha Scorpii, is the brightest star in the Scorpius constellation and overall the 15th brightest star in the night sky. * Originally, the Antares is a unit exclusive to General Alexander, a couple of Antares units appear on General Alexander's challenge map. Category:USA Arsenals Category:USA Vehicles Category:Support Vehicles